Youtube stigma and paid promotions? | Chats with Liv Rook (Interview)

Hi guys!

So this is a bit of a different post tonight. Recently, I reached 1000 followers on this blog! I’m forever grateful and it’s something that means so so much to me but after having this blog for an extremely long time, there’s many things that have become apparent to me with time-Positive and negative. However, with quite a small following, I assume that these effects of being on social media and putting out content only become more prominent as your following increases. Therefore I’ve decided to start a new series on my blog where I interview other bloggers, youtubers, social media influencers and advocates in general to present the effects that the industry has. This post, I interviewed the absolutely amazing Liv Rook. Liv has been an absolute star and she was so patient with me and extremely polite. I’ll leave her links at the bottom for you to check her out.

A overview of Liv: An inspiring mental health advocate who posts videos online ranging from hauls and updates to mental health check ins and information posts which include my personal favourite (anxiety bakes). She’s managed to rack up an amazing 24.6k on her channel with her inspiring videos and she’s helped so many people come to terms with- and recognise- their mental state. This post isn’t about me but as an anxiety sufferer I can assure you that Liv helps you to cope with yourself and not necessarily get rid of it- which I think is essential. She is also a music photographer who takes amazing and vibrant photos, which quite frankly as a photographer I’m extremely jealous of.

Let’s get onto the questions!

–Have you done a paid promotion? If so, do you regret the first one? (Eg:did it too early or for the wrong reasons)

I have done many paid promotions during my time on Youtube and I think the only thing I regret about my first one is that they were able to pay me less due to the number of subscribers I had. I should’ve asked for a bit more.

-is this something you want to do as a job or is it just a hobby?

My Youtube channel was always a hobby, and in fact I’ve stopped producing videos for now to focus on my dream career; to be a music photographer.

-You’re known quite widely for your mental health and self care work, have you found it difficult trying to sustain your channel doing something different to the crowd? 

In terms of getting my content seen by a wide audience: yes. The algorithm only shows exciting/ clickbait/ prank videos on the home screen. It’s a shame that something important such as mental health awareness is being ignored due to the more popular content.

-If there was one thing you could change/stop about YouTube what would it be?

I think the algorithm definitely needed changing a good few years back. It only allows popular/ big Youtube videos to be seen and it really excludes smaller Youtubers. I would maybe add ‘topics’ like Netflix, where you can select videos based on your interests rather than finding the most exciting looking thumbnail in your subscription box. A mental health section would’ve been amazing.

-was/is there a stigma around YouTube/blogging at your place of education?

There was. I knew people made fun out of my Youtube at the very beginning, but then as my numbers went up people thought it was cool. Then I entered Sixth Form and the external students based a judgement off of me being a Youtuber, rather than the rest of my personality.

-What’s your favourite thing about your channel?

I love the community it’s formed. I think with studytubers and mental health Youtubers, you will always have a loving, supportive community. You will have an audience who are open to education and learning and I love that. I love people trying to become less ignorant and just give something new a go.

-if when you started your channel, YouTube was like how it is today, would you still start it?

I think I would just because I made my channel because I loved making videos and loved speaking about what is important to me. It would definitely be harder with today’s Youtube and I probably wouldn’t have the same numbers, but I would still have my channel.

-What’s your funniest/best memory that has come out of your channel?

Ah there’s way too many but all of them include my Youtube friends. I’ve been lucky enough to meet some amazing people and travel the world with them and a lot of good memories have come out of that.

-What’s your worst memory from your channel?

I’ve never really thought of this before? Maybe when my boyfriend got a lot of hate from my GCSE results vlog? That annoyed me quite a bit.

-What’s your favourite video of yours? Why?

I really like my relaxing, cinematic videos. I’d say maybe my Prague video because it reminds me of a happy time in my relationship. It didn’t get many views but I think it represented me as a content creator quite well.

-Were your parents and family supportive of your channel from the start?

They were. They didn’t really understand it but as soon as they saw it made me happy and that I was gaining support, they supported it.

-If you could immediately go to 10million subscribers or go back to 1000, which would you choose?

1,000 for sure. I love a close-knit community and at that time, I was really producing the content I wanted to make. 

-if you had to choose between all of your subscribers and your friends you’d made from your channel, who would you pick?

Ah no this is a horrible question! I can’t choose! They both mean so much to me.

-As most people know, youtube is not the same as it was in 2012-2017. Do you think that the ‘new youtube’ (Logan Paul, dangerous challenges, etc) is as bad as it’s being made out to be?

I think it is. As someone who advocates for good influence, their content really pisses me off to be frank. These types of Youtubers will say ‘oh it’s just for a laugh, it’s just to get views’ but they don’t understand the effect it has on their viewers. Young kids are so influential and can easily copy half the stupid stuff they put in videos. It really does worry me about the new generation.

-Is there times where you regret making your channel? Why/ why not?

No. It’s made me who I am today and although I have stopped making videos, I know it was meant to be like this and has been a massive part of my teenage years.

Finally, a fun, unconnected question that I like to include at the end of them all:
-What flavour and brand of crisps would you eat if you could only eat one for the rest of your life?

Probably prawn cocktail!

So they’re all the questions I had to ask Liv! Got to admit, think I agree with the prawn cocktail answer, it’s a very divided community! Seriously though, blogging and youtube has so many positives but it’s not always so glitz and glam, which I think Liv highlights perfectly here. Thank you again to Liv for agreeing to be involved and let me know who else you would like to be involved in this series!

See you next time!

Emma x

Q:What’s your favourite crisp flavour?

Liv’s Channel

Liv’s Instagram